ecosystem

The mesic community.

Only three top carnivores are supported by nearly 6 million plants.

Forest, grassland, and desert.

A functional level, not a specific species.

By consuming different types of food at different levels, e.g., a sparrow as both a primary and secondary consumer.

Producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Burning of wood, forest fires, combustion of organic matter, fossil fuel, and volcanic activity.

Plant species, environmental factors, availability of nutrients, and photosynthetic capacity.

Tertiary or top-level consumers.

The amount of nutrients present in the soil at any given time.

In terms of weight (g m–2) or energy (kcal m–2).

Solar input, temperature cycles, day-length, and other climatic conditions.

Gross primary productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP).

Succession that starts in an area with no living organisms, like bare rock.

Hydrarch (wet areas) and xerarch (dry areas).

The rate of formation of new organic matter by consumers.

Carnivores.

2-10%.

It is the major conduit for energy flow.

A dark colored amorphous substance that is highly resistant to microbial action and undergoes decomposition slowly.

(a) Pyramid of number; (b) Pyramid of biomass; (c) Pyramid of energy.

A sharp decrease in biomass.

Only 10 percent of energy is transferred to each trophic level from the lower level.

In the atmosphere.

Because energy is always lost as heat when flowing from one trophic level to the next.

NPP = GPP - R (respiration losses).

Cycles, chains, and webs.

It slows down the decomposition rate.

The mass of living material at a particular time in a trophic level.

The movement of nutrient elements through various components of an ecosystem.

A community that is in near equilibrium with the environment.

Organic matter produced per unit area over time by plants during photosynthesis.

Inorganic materials such as air, water, and soil.

About 1 percent.

Unidirectional flow from the sun to producers and then to consumers.

Producers.

Zooplankton.

GPP is the total production of organic matter, while NPP is the remaining biomass after utilization by producers.

US $33 trillion.

The storage and movement of nutrient elements through various components of the ecosystem.

Involves processes like photosynthesis, respiration, and decomposition.

Producers are the first level, herbivores are the second, and carnivores are the third.

Relationships at different trophic levels in terms of number, biomass, or energy.

The producers or the first trophic level.

Dead biomass that serves as an energy source for decomposers.

Abiotic and biotic components.

All organisms at that trophic level.

Gaseous and sedimentary.

It begins in areas where natural biotic communities have been destroyed, such as abandoned farmland or burned forests.

A structural and functional unit of nature comprising abiotic and biotic components.

Only 2-10 percent.

Environmental factors like soil, moisture, pH, and temperature.

4 × 10^13 kg.

Several hundred to several thousand years, depending on the climate.

Rapid deforestation and massive burning of fossil fuels increase CO2 release.

Dead plant remains and animal remains, including fecal matter, that serve as raw material for decomposition.

Less than 10 percent each.

252 years.

No, it proceeds to a similar climax community – the mesic.

Terrestrial and aquatic.

Biomass is more accurately measured in terms of dry weight.

Less than 50 percent.

The entire sequence of communities that successively change in a given area.

49 percent.

Upright.

Earthworms, fungi, and some bacteria.

Phytoplankton, some algae, and various aquatic plants.

Species composition and stratification.

The rate of capture of solar energy or biomass production of producers.

A stable community that remains unchanged as long as the environment remains stable.

A grazing food chain starts with producers, while a detritus food chain starts with decomposing organic matter.

It is nearly twice the value of the GNP, which is US $18 trillion.

About 50 percent.

Gaseous and sedimentary.

The natural interconnection of food chains.

Warm and moist environments.

The gradual and predictable change in species composition of a given area.

A small standing crop of phytoplankton supports a large standing crop of zooplankton.

Productivity, decomposition, energy flow, and nutrient cycling.

A pond.

They break down dead matter, releasing nutrients back for reuse by autotrophs.

Products of ecosystem processes that provide economic, environmental, and aesthetic benefits.

Rock, in the form of phosphates.

They are primary consumers that feed on plants.

By degrading dead organic matter or detritus.

It remains stable as long as the environment remains unchanged.

They do not account for the same species belonging to multiple trophic levels.

The vertical distribution of different species occupying different levels.

They fix the Sun’s radiant energy to make food from simple inorganic materials.

The individual transitional communities in ecological succession.

Because some soil or sediment is already present.

In Earth's crust.

The biomass of fishes exceeds that of phytoplankton, resulting in an inverted pyramid.

Because they are recycled time and again indefinitely.

Succession that occurs in dry areas, progressing from xeric to mesic conditions.

Animals that eat primary consumers.

Fragmentation of detritus, leaching, and catabolism.

Atmospheric inputs of phosphorus through rainfall are much smaller than carbon inputs.

The process by which organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter.

Some organisms of the DFC are prey to GFC animals.

The amount of energy decreases.

Low temperature and anaerobiosis.

A global ecosystem, composed of all local ecosystems on Earth.

Primary succession and secondary succession.

The rate of production of organic matter during photosynthesis.

Succession that occurs in wet areas, progressing from hydric to mesic conditions.

Herbivores that feed on producers.

The amount of energy produced by autotrophs in an ecosystem.

From small phytoplanktons to rooted-submerged plants, rooted-floating angiosperms, and eventually to trees.

Through the dissolution of phosphates in soil solution from weathered rocks.

The rate at which energy is converted by photosynthetic and chemosynthetic autotrophs to organic substances.

Grass → Goat → Man.

The sequential order of changes in a biotic community over time.

Involves the cycling of nutrients through biological, geological, and chemical processes.

Temperature and soil moisture.

1%.

Producer, herbivore, primary carnivore, secondary carnivore.

To understand input (productivity), transfer of energy, and output (degradation and energy loss).

Zooplankton and free swimming or bottom dwelling forms.

Herbaceous and woody plants.

They play a vital role but are not represented in ecological pyramids.

The rate of assimilation of food energy by consumers.

Dead organic matter.

Soil condition, water availability, environment, and presence of seeds or propagules.

They break down detritus into smaller particles through fragmentation.

Energy flow is unidirectional, starting from plants capturing solar energy to food being transferred to decomposers.

No, unlike the carbon cycle.

About 6 percent each.

A much larger fraction of energy flows through the DFC in terrestrial ecosystems.

Mineralisation.

Chemical composition of detritus and climatic factors.

A functional unit of nature where living organisms interact among themselves and with the physical environment.

The Sun, except for the deep sea hydro-thermal ecosystem.

Pond, lake, wetland, river, and estuary.

Biogeochemical cycles.

A pyramid shape.

71 percent is found dissolved in oceans.

Ecosystems such as crop fields and aquariums.

Species that invade a bare area, such as lichens in primary succession on rocks.

The atmosphere and oceans.

Succession that occurs in areas that have lost all living organisms.

The amount of energy present at each trophic level over a given time or annually per unit area.

Unidirectional movement towards higher trophic levels with loss as heat.

Purifying air and water, mitigating droughts and floods, cycling nutrients, generating fertile soils, and maintaining biodiversity.

The death of an organism.

Decomposers, mainly fungi and bacteria.

Natural or human-induced disturbances can revert succession to an earlier stage and create new conditions for species.

Saprotrophs.

Producers, consumers, decomposers, and abiotic factors.

Fragmentation, leaching, catabolism, humification, and mineralisation.

A process during decomposition that leads to the formation of humus.

Graphical representations showing the distribution of biomass, numbers, or energy among trophic levels.

Because ecosystem services are largely taken for granted as they are free.

Phosphorus exchanges between organisms and the environment are negligible in ecosystems.

A specific place in the food chain based on the source of nutrition.